Control unit for starting a climitization procedure in a building

ABSTRACT

A controller is provided which includes a control unit for controlling the start of a climatization procedure in a building. The system includes a pulse generator which times the operations of the control unit and an equivalent electrical circuit which controls the operations of the control unit. The latter simulates thermal properties of the building during temperature conditioning operations, i.e., heating or cooling, and receives voltages representative of the inside and outside temperature of the building. The discharging, charging or equalization of voltages on condensors contained within the equivalent electrical circuit are used to determine the time for conditioning the temperature of the building after the conditioning system has been out of service for a given period of time and thus in calculation of the correct instant for starting the conditioning procedure by the control unit. A binary type frequency divider divides the output of the pulse generator to produce a pulse train of substantially lower frequency while a decadic counter converts the binary pulses into decadic pulses. The decadic counter produces pulses representative of different ending digits of the decadic numbers, e.g., 5, 7 and 9, and a plurality of different control means for controlling the start of the climatization procedure by the control unit are connected to individual outputs of the decadic counter. Thus, the sequence of operations of the control unit, under the control of the equivalent electrical circuit, takes place in an order determined by the end digits in question.

From the German specification No. 26 17 154 under public inspection acontrol unit is known regarding the starting of a climatizationprocedure in a building. It is assumed that the building which is usedduring day hours only and/or the working days of the week was left inbetween these times without climatization, independently of whether saidclimatization is provided regards heating of the building or its coolingto an agreeable temperature.

According to said published specification, an equivalent electriccircuit is provided, symbolizing the run of the heating of the buildingby means of an electric decharging current or charging current orequalization current representing the feed of heat to the building orthe removal of heat from the building, respectively. The electricequivalent circuit is controlled at least by the outside temperature andthe internal temperature, but also other climatic conditions mayinfluence the function of the electric equivalent circuit, such as thespeed of the wind, the moisture and the like. Further, the equivalentelectric circuit is adjustable with respect to the values of itselements such as condensors and/or resistors so as to correspond to theproperties of the building.

The arrangement functions in a way that during decharging, charging orvoltage equalization in the equivalent electric circuit a chargingprocedure of high frequency pulses will take place in a counter, whichis so constructed that it will, guided by a given starting point of timebefore the time proper, when the agreeable temperature or the agreeableclimatic relation should exist within the building, and also guided bythe number of pulses, counted during the period of time for change ofthe load of the equivalent circuit, determine the correct time forstarting the climatization system for the building, so that this willnot only be started as late as possible but nevertheless be started atsuch a time that the agreeable climatic relation will have been achievedat the time when the building shall again be taken into use. By this itis desired to decrease the need of power for the climatization system asfar as possible without thereby renouncing the climatic relations duringthe time when the building is in use.

The present invention concerns an improvement of the above indicated,known arrangement by which an increased accuracy is obtained and alsomore simple and reliable operation is achieved, in which regard can betaken to as many different factors as possible which may influence thefaultless operation of the climatization procedure.

As in the arrangement for the same purpose, known from the Germanpublication specification No. 26 17 154, an equivalent circuit is alsoused in the arrangement according to the present invention, by which therelations during the heating of the building are imitated after a periodof time during which the building was unused, by connecting into theequivalent circuit condensers as symbols for the heat capacity ofdifferent parts of the building and electric resistors as symbols forthe heat technical resistance of parts of the building and voltages assymbols for the temperatures in part inside of the building, in partoutside of the building. The condensers are charged by a voltagecorresponding to the outside temperature relations and a voltagedifference is created by means of the voltage corresponding to theinside temperature relations.

In the known arrangement, use is made of the fact that the equalizationof the charge voltage of the condenser or the condensers, respectively,will follow an exponential curve of identically the same general shapeas the exponential curve along which the conditioning of the buildingwill take place under influence of for instance a heating system, whichtakes place in such a way that the conditioning unit is started a givenperiod of time in advance of the starting of the heating procedure, thevoltages of the equivalent circuit thereafter being allowed to equalizeuntil there exists a state of voltages, corresponding to the desiredconditioning of the climatic relations of the building. During theequalization of the voltages high frequency pulses are fed to a counter,but the counter is limited to receive a precise number of pulses andafter the equalization has taken place of the charge voltage thefrequency of the pulse train is rather much decreased, for instance inthe relation to 1:10.000, whereafter the counter is allowed to continueits counting with this pulse frequency. When the maximum number ofpulses has been counted, a waiting period of time has been identified,which will, thus, be shorter the longer the time of the voltageequalization and longer the shorter the time of the voltageequalization. Consequently, the shorter the period of time of thevoltage equalization and the longer the waiting period of time, theshorter will the period of time be which remains until the work startsagain in the building and vice versa. In this way one could get a goodproportionality between the time of the voltage equalization in theequivalent circuit, on the one hand, and the time of conditioning beforethe building is again in use, on the other hand.

Now, it may happen that for instance the feed of electric current is cutoff whereby the function of the system may be delayed to such an extentthat in spite of current being again available at the time when theheating should ordinarily be started, this time is displaced by the sameamount as the one during which the cut off of the current lasted. Thisis a first disadvantage of the known arrangement.

Further, the known arrangement will be extremely sensitive todisturbances due to the high pulse frequency required, and still more byall of the functions being controlled directly to this high pulsefrequency.

Both of these disadvantages are avoided according to the presentinvention by creating, by means of a high pulse frequency, a timepattern under successive pulse frequency division, the time pointsconcerned being placed in the correct sequence in said pattern and beingappropriately spaced in time from each other.

The invention, thus, concerns a control unit for starting aclimatization procedure in a building, according to which a pulsegenerator is arranged to create pulses and an equivalent electriccircuit is arranged to imitate the thermal properties of the buildingduring heating or cooling, said equivalent electric circuit being fedwith a voltage as a symbol for the internal temperature in the buildingand also with a voltage as a symbol for the external temperature outsideof the building, a charge or an equilization of one or more condenserstaking place over resistors contained in said equivalent electriccircuit as a symbol for the period of time required for conditioning thetemperature of the building after said building has been unused duringsome time. The time for the charging, or the discharging, or theequalization, thereby, is very short in relation to the time for theconditioning of the temperature of the building but is used forcalculation of the correct moment for starting the conditioningprocedure so that no wasted time shall lapse during which theconditioning system is working but in spite of this the conditioning beeffected at a given moment.

According to the invention, a pulse generator is arranged to createpulses of a very high frequency, said pulses being fed to a pulsefrequency divider of binary type creating a pulse train of anessentially lower frequency in its output circuit. One output circitconduit from said pulse frequency divider is connected directly orindirectly to a decadic counter which transforms the binary pulses intodecadic pulses. The coincidence circuits in the decadic counter areconnected such that in each of them only such pulses are let throughwhich represent different numerical values for the last figure in thedecadic series of figures. Connections to different means in the controlunit provide for controlling said means in an order of sequencedetermined by said last figures.

The invention will be further described below in connection with anembodiment shown in the attached drawings, but it is understood that theinvention shall not be limited to this specific form of execution butthat all different kinds of modifications may occur within the scope ofthe invention.

In the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a general block diagram of an arrangementaccording to the invention, comprising a time determining circuit, apulse circuit, a temperature sensing circuit and a control circuit. FIG.2 shows more in detail a block diagram of the time determining circuit,FIG. 3 the temperature sensing circuit, FIG. 4 the pulse circuit, FIG. 5the control circuit, all of which in detailed block diagrams, and FIG.6, finally, shows a preferred embodiment of the electric equivalentcircuit.

In FIG. 1, thus, the time determining circuit 10 is shown, which has forits purpose to connect or disconnect the arrangement, respectively, atgiven moments of time, which are either at the beginning of workinghours or at the end of them and/or before the working time of the daystarts on a monday after a week end or at the end of working hoursduring the preceding friday. This time determining circuit 10, over aconductor or conduit 11, is connected to a pulse circuit 12, whichcreates pulses of the frequencies described below, and also counts themand compares them with voltages derived from an electric equivalentcircuit. The latter is contained in the temperature sensing circuit 13to which the pulse circuit is connected by means of the conduit 14. Allof the three circuits 10, 12 and 13 now mentioned are connected by oneof a group of conductors 15, 16 and 17, respectively, to the controlcircuit 18, which can, over conductors 19 and 20 start or stop,respectively, the conditioning system concerned. For purposes ofsimplification the system will in the following be described as if itcomprises a heating vessel for radiator heating of the localities, theair of which should be conditioned, but this should only be understoodas an explanation and simplification but not as a limitation of thescope of the invention. Thus, the invention may as well concern someother type of air conditioning system for instance a cooling system orequipment for ventilation with respect to which one desires to avoidunnecessary consumption of power during periods of time when thebuilding is not used.

The time determining circuit which is shown schematically in FIG. 2comprises a timer 21, which is shown here in the form of a twelve hourwatch. In reality, the timer should, of course, have a longerperiodicity. If the conditioning system is only shut off during nighthours, the watch may have a periodicity of twenty four hours, but if theconditioning system shold also be shut off during week ends, it shouldhave a periodicity of one week. The timer 21, by means of a conduit 22,is arranged to control a logic circuit 23. This is done over the conduit11 connected to the pulse circuit in a way which will be described lateron, and it is also, over the conduit 15, connected to the controlcircuit 18, also in this case in a way which will be described below.

The temperature sensing circuit 13 is reproduced in block diagram formin FIG. 3. The input temperature information is derived from threetemperature sensors 24, 25 and 26, which may be thermistors along withthe circuit elements pertaining thereto. The temperature sensor 24senses the temperature in the interior of the intermediate walls in thebuilding, below indicated as t_(v), the temperature sensor 25 senses theinterior air temperature in some given place in the building, which maybe regarded representative for all of the building, but it is, ofcourse, also possible, for this purpose to use some combination of aplurality of co-operating temperature sensors, known per se. Thistemperature, in the following, is indicated by t_(i). The temperaturesensor 26 senses finally the temperature outside of the building, belowindicated by t_(u). The electric equivalent circuit, comprisingcombinations of resistors and condensers, by means of which the heatingconditions in the building are imitated, is indicated by 27.

Each of the three temperature sensors 24, 25 and 26 is connected to anamplifier 28 or 29 or 30, respectively. They have the purpose ofproducing voltages in the form of pure direct current voltages, whichare proportional to the usually rather weak voltages from thetemperature sensors, the amplified voltages being better adapted for thecontrol procedure concerned.

The temperature sensor 26 for the outside temperature t_(u) is connectedwith its out put circuit from the amplifier 30 over a conduit 32 to theelectric equivalent circuit 27, and the temperature sensor 25 forinternal temperature t_(i) is, over its amplifier 29 and anelectronically controlled switch 33 as well as a conduit 34 alsoconnected to the electric equivalent circuit 27. An advanced embodimentof same will later on be described in connection with FIG. 6. Thus, itshould be mentioned that the internal temperature t_(i) in the buildingonly starts to influence the climatization procedure or the hetingprocedure in the building, after the electronically controlled switch 33has been closed. This electronically controlled switch 33, as a matterfact, co-operates with two further electronically controlled switches 35and 36 under influence of a current, which is transferred by means ofthe conductor 14 from the pulse circuit 12.

To make the coupling arrangement more clear, the conductor 14 along withthe three electronically controlled switch contacts 33, 35 and 36 havebeen shown both in FIG. 3 and in FIG. 4.

Now, it may be suitable to give account in short terms of the parts ofthe pulse circuit concerned. This circuit is shown in detail in FIG. 4.The basic pulse generator in this circuit is indicated by 37. It has avery high pulse frequency, which may for instance be 1 megacycle persecond. This pulse frequency, of course, is not of decisive importancefor the invention, and there is a possibility to use other pulsefrequencies. However, generally it is advantageous, if the said pulsefrequency is high, because the pulse generator preferably is crystalcontrolled in order to create a constant pulse frequency of a lowerorder of magnitude for given subsequent circuits, as will be describedlater on. It is well known to the man skilled in the art that therelative constancy of any working circuit may be considerably increasedif one creates first a very high constant frequency and thereafter, byfrequency division, decreases this frequency down to the workingfrequency.

The pulses from the pulse generator are transferred over the conduit 38to a binary pulse counter 39, which has for its purpose in first placeto cause such a frequency division by means of suitably arrangedcoincidence circuits. This part of the arrangement would scarcelyrequire any further description as it is well known to any man skilledin the art how the said procedure takes place. The result of thisfrequency division nevertheless will be that pulses of a considerablylower frequency will be transmitted in the output circuit of the pulsefrequency divider. This reduced frequency when following up the abovegiven example value of the basic frequency, may be assumed to be 2kilocycles a second. It should be reminded about, in this connection,that it is possible, by successive pulse divisions by two, to reduce afrequency of 1 megacycle a second to 1,953.125 periods a second whichmay, with completely satisfactory approximation be said to be 2kilocycles a second.

One of the three output circuits from the binary pulse frequency divider39 is connected over the conduit 40 to a decadic counter device 41 forrecalculation of the binary pulses into the decadic system, i.e., toprovide conversion from a binary to a base ten system. This decadiccounter 41 may but must not necessarily further reduce the frequency ofthe pulse train transferred over the conductor 40. On the other hand,however, the decadic counter is arranged to give off signal pulsesthrough its output conduits 42, 43 and 44 in a given order of time, viz.to produce a pulse on the conductor 42 each time when the decadic seriesof figures ends on the FIG. 5, on the conductor 43 each time when thedecadic series of figures ends on the FIG. 7, and on the conductor 44each time when the decadic series of figures ends on the FIG. 9. Theseterminal figures, of course, are arbitrarily chosen, and they could aswell have other values. It is valuable if each such terminal figurediffers from the one next before and from the one next after by twounits.

The pulse frequency of these three decadic series of figures is, in theexemplary embodiment, 84 pulses a second, but as before, the number ofpulses may be chosen in another way. The pulses carrying the final FIG.5 thus run with a number of pulses of 8.4 pulses each second to a logiccircuit 45, which controls directly a binary counter 46 over the conduit47 and also over its output circuit 48 controls a second binary counter49.

The two binary counters 46 and 49 are constructed for counting 256=2⁸steps. They are provided with eight output conductors, bundled togetherinto clusters of conductors 50 and 51, respectively. The two binarycounters 46 and 49, however, are further subjected to the influence ofcontrol signals, one of which being introduced over the conductor 52 andthe logic circuit 45, and the other one over the conductor 53 and thebinary counter 46. These control signals act in such a way that, whensuch a signal is fed into the binary counter (46 or 49), concerned, whenthe counting of pulses will cease in said binary counter. Further, aninput circuit to the binary counter 46 is connected to the conductor 11from the timer actuated counter 22, FIG. 2, whereby it is possible todetermine, if the counting in the binary counter shall be taking placeor not. If a signal is transferred over the conduit 11, allowing thebinary counter 46 to work, so will counter 46 thereafter count pulsesuntil a given end position. When it has reached this value, the saidstate is marked by voltage being connected to a output conductor 50 fromthe binary counter 46.

When a pulse with the final FIG. 5 has been registered in the logiccircit 45, a pulse having the final FIG. 7 will be fed to the device 54acting as a monostable switch for pulses. This is then switched over sothat it will create a temporary stop signal over the conductor 52 to thelogical circuit 45, and as a consequence thereof, this logic circuitwill not register the next following pulse of the final FIG. 5. Whenthereafter another pulse with the final FIG. 7 is transferred to thepulse switch 54, this is again turned over and the stop signal over theconductor 52 is removed with the consequence that the logic circuit 45will again register the next pulse of the final FIG. 5 over the outputconduit 42. In this way, the logic circuit 45 will only register everysecond pulse with the final FIG. 5.

As the pulse frequency of the decadic series was 84 pulses each second,the distance in time between each such step fed pulse and the next onewill be 168 seconds, which means that the counting of 256 steps willtake a time of 12 hours. As a matter of fact, the indicated pulsefrequency time will be 198 seconds shorter than 12 hours, but thislittle error in time is without any importance, because it is notaccumulated from one day to another one, because the system is startedagain every day by influence from the timer 21. The entire conductor 53is connected to a manually or automatically controlled device, by meansof which one can transmit a stop signal to the binary counter 46,connected to some suitable place in its coincidence circuits, so thatthe counting will stop after one fourth or after the half or after threeforth of the said time of 12 hours or in other words, after three hoursor after six hours or after nine hours. Of course, it is most suitableto provide three different conductor wires, which have, however, beensymbolized, in FIG. 4, by means of one single line 53. As soon as thegiven period of time of three or six or nine hours has lapsed, a markingsignal is transmitted over the cluster of wires 50 to parts of thesystem according to the invention, which will be described in connectionwith FIG. 5, because they rather belong to the control circuit, which isthe one shown in said figure.

Although each pulse from the decadic counter 41 having 7 as its finalfigure was fed to the monostable switch 54 in order to control theoperation of the logic circuit 45, the output conduit 43, however isbranched off also to the binary counter 49. Also here, the said pulsesserve as stop signals, and consequently, the two binary counters 46 and49 will get the same pulse frequency and the same indication of time intheir output clusters of conduits 50 and 51, respectively.

The logic circuit 55 gets pulses of two different kinds. viz. highfrequency pulses of a frequency, which was above as an example said tobe 2 kilocycles a second, over the conduit 56 from the pulse frequencydivider 39, and also pulses over the conduit 51 which forms the outputcircuit from the binary counter 49. The pulses with 9 as their endfigure from the decadic counter 41 cause the logic circuit 55 enablefeeding the pulses from the pulse frequency divider 39 over conduit 56,the logic circuit 55 and the conductor 58 to the binary counter 49 forcounting. This pulse counting, however, is stopped by the logic circuit55 when the maximum number of pulses has been counted. In the partshitherto described the coupling arrangement functions in the followingway:

It should first be assumed that the pulse switch 54 is in such aposition, that the logic circuit lets through a pulse with the end FIG.5 from the decadic counter 41 to the binary counter 46. When this pulseof the end FIG. 5 is transferred over the conduit 42, it will passthrough the logic circit 45 and, consequently, the binary counter 46will be stepped forward by one step. With the intervals of timeexplained above thereafter 16.8 seconds will pass, until another decadicpulse with the end FIG. 7 is transmitted over the conduit 43. This willcause two operations:

Firstly, this pulse will by means of the pulse switch 54 control thebinary counter 45 in such a way that the pulse with the FIG. 5,following next thereafter will not be counted.

Secondly, this pulse causes the binary counter 45 to transfer the pulsesfrom its input circuits to its output circuits.

After the run of further 16.8 seconds, a pulse comes in with the endFIG. 9 in the output conduit 44, and this pulse will then act upon thelogic circuit 55 so that the quick pulses from the pulse frequencydivider 39 may pass over the conduit 58 and step the binary pulsecounter forward until it reaches its pre-determined maximum value ofcounted pulses. It may happen that the binary counter 49 will at sometime be in its intial position, and then 120 milli seconds are requiredin order that it shall reach its maximum value. This period of time of120 milli seconds in the binary pulse counter corresponds therefore to aperiod of time of twelve hours in the binary counter 46.

Through conduit 44, which only contains such decadic counter pulses, theend figure of which is 9, however, the decadic counter 45 also reaches alogic circuit 60, which, over conduit 14 feeds current to the threeelectronically controlled switches 33, 35 and 36 so that they areactuated, the switches 33 and 35 thereby being closed and the switch 36being opened.

In this way the activity of the remaining parts of the system accordingto the invention is initiated, and, therefore, reference shall now againbe made to FIG. 3, just mentioned.

The three electronically controlled contacts 33, 35 and 36 along withthe activation conduit 14 for their control are also found in FIG. 3.

It will be evident from the above that by the function of the pulsecircuit 12 such as has been explained in connection with FIG. 3, a timeprogram with fixed and well defined intervals of time has been createdso that, so to say, a time scale has been obtained which may be used forstarting the heating system as late as possible, nevertheless, however,so early that full conditioning of the building shall have been obtainedat the time for its renewed taking into use. By this the doubleadvantage is gained that there is not only no unnecessary consumption ofpower by the heating system being started too early, but also fullconditioning has been achieved to the agreeable temperature, when thebuilding is taken into use again after an interruption of theconditioning.

The electric equivalent circuit 27, over a conductor 59, is connected toone of the inputs of an amplifier 61, the other input of which isconnected, over a conduit 62, to a conduit 63 from some device with thetask to indicate by means of a voltage the desired, agreeabletemperature in the building. This conduit 63, in the following, will berefered to as the "optimum temperature conduit". It is adjustablemanually from some place not shown in the drawing in order to indicate avoltage as a symbol for the temperature, e.g. 20° C., which is desiredwithin the building, when work in the same shall again start.

If now the amplifier 61 should show similarity or a given relationbetween the state in the form of a voltage, impressed thereon from theequivalent circuit 27, on the one hand, and the voltage, which is fedover the conduit 62 from the optimal temperature conduit 63, on theother hand, then this will mean that the desired agreeable temperaturehas been obtained inside of the building. Thereby a signal istransmitted over the conduit 64 to the two logic circuits 65 and 66 inparallel. These logic circuits 65 and 66, however, also have anotherinput, which is fed in parallel from the conduit 50 leading from thebinary counter 46, FIG. 4. The logic circuit 65 has for its purpose toregister the state of the amplifier 61 at the moment when the signalarrives over the conduit 64 and to transmit over the conduit 57 a signalto the logic circuit 66. This signal compares the state of sameamplifier 61, however at the end next before of a testing period of 84seconds, said period of time being measured in the way apparent from theabove.

Now, it may first be assumed, that the signal over the conduit 64 fromthe amplifier 61 indicates, at a given time, that the agreeabletemperature, such as this has been symbolized by the electric equivalentcircuit 27 along the voltages fed to same from the sensors 25 and 26,has been achieved, which, of course, only is a symbolic matter of factbut does not mean that the temperature proper in the building has beenincreased to the value concerned. The statement about this is thenstored in the logic circuit 66, and the procedure described above isrepeated after a period of time of 84 seconds, when another signal istransferred to the circuits 65 and 66. Also this renewed signal istransferred from the circuit 65 to the circuit 66, where the result ofthe test next before has previously been stored. If, in this way, twotests following each other with a time difference of 84 seconds, shouldprove, that the agreeable temperature has been achieved, which is thusstill only symbolized by the electric equivalent circuit 27, no startsignal is given off through the output conduit 67 to the control circuit18, which is further described in FIG. 5, and which should otherwisehave caused starting of the heating system in order of the conditioningproper of the air in the building.

Here, it should especially be emphasized that because the logic circuit55, as explained above, is only stepped forward every second time when acombination of figures with the end FIG. 9 is given off to same from thedecadic counter 41, two equivalent tests of identically the same lengthof time will always follow immediately after each other.

If two tests following in this way after each other should give mutuallydifferent results, nothing further happens in the system but the testscontinue with the above mentioned repetition periodicity of 84 seconds.

If, on the other hand, two tests following immediately after each otherwith a duration each of 84 seconds should prove that in neither of thesaid cases the desired optimum temperature has been reached in theelectric equivalent circuit 27, symbolizing the increase of temperature,then this is taken as a proof of that the heating system should bestarted. In this case, a start signal is given off to the controlcircuit 18 over the output conduit 67 and the heating system is startedin a way which will be described in connection with FIG. 5.

The total time for the two tests amounting to 168 seconds or less thanthree minutes, of course, is short when compared with the actual heatingtime, which may, dependent upon how far the cooling has proceeded duringthe period of inactivity, for instance amount to twelve or nine or sixbut under all circumstances rarely to less than three hours, saidperiods of time being manually or automatically settled on basis ofexperience or measurement, respectively, of the heating time period ofthe building at different outside climatic relations, by means of theoptimum temperature conduit 63, FIG. 3, in co-operation with the voltageon the conductor 53 and its time dependency. The fact that two testsfollowing after each other are used for determining if the heatingsystem should be started, however causes a practically complete securityagainst failure function of the system. It should be mentioned now thatthe starting of the heating system normally takes place by energizationof a relay 68, but under given circumstances this may also take place byenergization of a relay 69, FIG. 5, their contacts 70 and 71,respectively, being connected into the existing starting conduits of theheating system. This part, however, has no direct connection with thepresent invention.

The output conduit 67 from the logic circuit 66, FIG. 3, is however alsobranched off to the logic circuit 60, FIG. 4 with the result that thethree electronically controlled switch contacts 33, 35 and 36 arereversed. This causes a re-arrangement of the voltages fed to theelectric equivalent circuit 27, FIG. 3. Thus, at the contact 36 theconduit 74 is disconnected from the amplifier 73, which is, in turn,connected with one input conductor to this electronically controlledcontact 36 and with another input conductor is connected to the optimumtemperature conductor 63 over the conductor 62. The amplifier 73 willmeasure the difference between the wall temperature t_(v) and theoptimum temperature, so that the voltage in the output circuit 76 ofsaid amplifier 73 will vary at least approximately proportional to saidvoltage difference. The output circuit 76, however, is also branched offto a combination of resistors 78 in the optimum temperature conductor63, so that, as a matter of fact, the input signal to an amplifier 79with two input conduits will, as regards the conduit 62, represent acombination, e.g. the sum of the optimum temperature voltage and thesaid voltage difference just mentioned in the output circuit 76 fromamplifier 73.

When a building is cooled due to the fact that it has also not beenheated during the period of time when it was not used, the walls arecooled, due to their heat capacity, at a slower rate than the air in theinterior of the building, but upon heating the circumstances will bereversed. Consequently, at least during an essential part of the heatingperiod, the temperature in the walls in the interior of the building,especially the intermediate walls, is lower than the air temperature. Ifthe conditioning should now be controlled exclusively by the temperatureof the outside air and of the air in the interior of the building, sothat the heating will be interrupted when the last mentioned temperaturehas risen to the optimum value, then a cooling of the air wouldimmediately start by heat being transferred to the walls therebyincreasing the lag of temperature.

It is for this purpose that a separate sensor 24 with its amplifier 28has been provided for sensing the temperature t_(v) in the interior ofthe walls. This sensor 24 normally is not connected to the electricequivalent circuit 27, the contact 35 being open, but at voltage on theconductor 14, this contact 35 is closed simultaneously with the openingof the contact 36.

What happens first, of course, is that an equalization of the voltageson the condensers in the electric equivalent circuit will take place bythe sensor 25 for sensing the interior air temperature t_(i) along withits amplifier 29 being connected to said equivalent circuit 27,whereafter, in the way described above, a sensing of the interior airtemperature t_(i) will reach a level which after completion of theequalization would cause that the heating would stop, if no boostercircuit existed.

The voltage difference between the inner air temperature t_(i) and thewall temperature t_(v), thus, is introduced after amplification in theamplifier 73 into the control procedure. Over the conduit 76, thus, avoltage representing the wall temperature t_(v) is transferred to anamplifier 81 by means of one of its input circuits but simultaneously bymeans of its second input circuit and over the conduit 63 a voltagerepresenting the optimum temperature is fed so that a voltage willappear in the output circuit 82 of the amplifier 81, referred to as the"booster voltage", said voltage being a little higher than the voltagewhich would represent the internal temperature t_(i). This voltage isfed over a conductor 82 to an amplifier 83 having two inputs. The otherinput of this amplifier 83 is connected over the conduit 84 with theoutput side of the amplifier 29, which indicates an amplified expressionfor the voltage, corresponding to the interior air temperature t_(i) inthe building as sensed by the sensor 25. In this way, one will get acomparision between the two voltages over the conductors 82 and 84, inthe amplifier 83.

Consequently, when the room temperature, i.e., the air temperature t_(i)inside of the building, has reached a preselected value, indicated bythe amplifier 81, a signal will be transmitted from the amplifier 83 toa logic control circuit 85 over the conduit 86. At this time, thecontrol circuit 85, when the said voltage value has been achieved, willcause that the current in the conduit 87 and the amplifier 88 to therelay 68 is cut off, so that this relay will be de-energized and itscontact 70 will be opened, and the normal, temperature controlledfunction of the heating system will cease.

Simultaneously with the attraction of the relay 68 for the normaloperation of the heating system, however, also the relay 69 isenergized, however without any other effect than that its contact 71 wasclosed in parallel to the closed contact 70 of the relay 68.

The above mentioned circuit, however, provides that after the opening ofthe contact 70 the contact 71 will remain closed. This state willcontinue during a period of time the end of which is determined by thetimer circuit according to FIG. 2 by a voltage drop on the conductor 67and, due to its connection to the logic circuit 90 de-energization relay69 of.

In this way, thus, security has been gained for a subsequent heatcreation in the building for compensation of the loss of heat, caused bythe heat of the air in the building being conducted away to theinitially colder walls.

As an alternative of the above mentioned arrangement one may over aconduit 109 connect the circuit 85 with a separate timer 112, which is,thus, started simultaneously with de-energization of the relay 68, butwhich over the conduit 67 acts upon the logic circuit 90 so that therelay will remain atracted during a period of time adapted for the saidequalization of the temperature.

In FIG. 4, a binary counter 46 is shown, the function of which haspreviously been briefly described. An output conduit 50 from this binarycounter 46 runs to a logic circuit 68 as well as a logic circuit 90.These are contained in a greater circuit arrangement which could be saidto form an adaptive circuit for improving the adaption of the heatingprocedure to the internal circumstances in the building. At a givenvoltage in the logic circuit 90, amplified in the amplifier 92 in theoutput conduit, thus, will cause the relay 69 to be energized and closeits contact 71.

As a matter of fact, it may happen that the desired agreement betweenthe actually existing heating relations, on the one hand, and theheating relations symbolized in the electric equivalent circuit, on theother hand, are not in agreement, which may depend upon many differentcircumstances which are impossible to discover in advance, such as theexecution of a heat creating job within the building of the like. Insuch a case, the logic circuit 89 will become active, thereby causing,over a distribution circuit 93, a conduit 87, an amplifier 94 and aconduit 88 as well as a logic circuit 95 a temporary correction of theconstants of the equivalent circuit 27. The logic circuit 95, is alsofed with pulses over the conduit 96 from the pulse frequency divider 39,FIG. 4. In the case of an disagreement, circuit 95 gives off a signalover the conduit 97 to the equivalent circuit 27 for correcting theerror between its symbolic properties and the real properties of theheating system, the building and so on.

The equivalent electric circuit is shown in the form of an exemplaryembodiment in FIG. 6. The different input conductors to the electricequivalent circuit according to FIG. 6 are formed by the conductors 32,34, 35 and 37 previously mentioned, the three first of which beingconnected to the amplifiers after the sensing means for temperatures inorder of introduction of the voltages determining the climatization,whereas the last one forms a correction conduit. It is without anydecisive importance to the present invention in what manner the couplingelements of the electric equivalent circuit represent propertiesimportant to the extent of the heating of the building, and for thispurpose, therefore reference is given to the above mentioned Germanspecification No. 26 17 134.

The circuit, thus, is shown in FIG. 6 to be composed of five resistors98-102, three condensers 103-105 and an electric source of current 106.The resistor 100 is variable under influence of a voltage, which is fedover the conduit 97. For instance, it may be formed by amagnetorestrictive resistor under influence of a magnetic winding fedwith current over the conduit 97, or be a thermally variable resistor,influenced by a heater winding, which gets, in turn, its heating currentover the conduit 97. The source of electric voltage 106 is intended formanually adjusting the electric equivalent circuit to adapt thevoltages, obtained after amplification from the different temperaturesensing means. The adaptive system just mentioned in the arrangement iscontrolled by the amplifier 107, FIG. 5, which is fed at both of itsinputs firstly with the voltage from the amplifier 29 after the sensingmeans 25 for the internal temperature t_(i), which takes place over theconduit 84, and secondly with the optimum temperature voltage over theconductor 63. It gives off its output voltage to the logic circuit 89over a conduit 108. The logic circuit 89, further, is connected to twofurther input conduits, viz. the conduit 163 from the amplifier 79, FIG.3, which receives at one input the voltage from the ampli- 29 after thesensing means 25 for the temperature of the interior temperature t_(i)and at the other input a signal on the conduit 63 for the optimumtemperature voltage. The logic circuit 89 also is connected to theconductor 50 from the binary counter 46, previously mentioned. In thisway, it is possible, by comparison of voltages in this logic circuit 89to state if the air temperature t_(i) in the interior of the buildinghas reached the desired optimum temperature before or after the signalfrom the binary counter 46 carried by conduit 50 indicates that thebinary counter has counted its maximum number of pulses. Dependent uponthe result of this control, the required number of pulses is added ordeducted, respectively, in the counter 93, which after the correction ofthe number of pulses counted will, over the amplifier 94 influence thelogic circuit 95. Also this correction is transferred, over theconductor 97, to the electric equivalent circuit for its subsequentcorrection.

As a further matter of security, the output conduit from the amplifier29 provided for the interior air temperature t_(i) is connected to oneof the inputs of an amplifier 110, which is, with its other input 111,fed with a fixed or adjustable voltage, serving to limit the function ofthe logic circuit 90. The output conduit 113 forms one of the four inputconduits of the logic circuit 90, the remaining input conduits of whichare the conduit 67, the conduit 50, and the conduit 15 from the timercircuit, FIGS. 1 and 2.

This last mentioned arrangement operates such that if the airtemperature t_(i) in the interior of the building when compared in theamplifier 110, would prove to be, for one reason or another, below thenormal value, then over the conduit 113 a signal is transmitted to thelogic circuit 90 and through this over the conduit 91 to the amplifier92, whereby the relay 69 will be energized and, by closing its contact71, add the additional heating, the normal thermostatically controlledfunction of the heating system continuing over the contact 70 of therelay 68.

I claim:
 1. A control unit for controlling the start of a climatizationprocedure in a building, wherein a pulse generator is provided forgenerating pulses used in timing the operations of the control unit,first and second temperature sensor means are provided for sensing theinterior temperature of the building and the external temperatureoutside of the building and for respectively producing first and secondvoltages in accordance therewith, and an equivalent electrical circuitfor controlling the operations of the control unit is arranged tosimulate the thermal properties of the building during temperatureconditioning operations, i.e., heating or cooling, the equivalentelectrical circuit being fed with a said first voltage representative ofthe interior temperature in the building, and a said second voltagerepresentative of the external temperature outside of the building, andthe time required for a discharge, a charge or an equalization of one ormore voltages on condensers contained in the equivalent electricalcircuit being representative of the period of time required forconditioning the temperature of the building, after the conditioningsystem has been out of use during a predetermined period of time, thedischarge or charge or equalization time being short as compared withthe time for conditioning the temperature of the building and being usedfor calculation of the correct moment for starting the conditioningprocedure by the control unit, said pulse generator being arranged togenerate pulses of a very high frequency, and said control unit furtherincluding a binary type pulse frequency divider for receiving pulsesfrom said pulse generator and for producing a pulse train of binarypulses of a substantially lower frequency, a decadic counter connectedto one output of said pulse frequency divider for converting the binarypulses into decadic pulses, said decadic counter including coincidencecircuits connected to a plurality of outputs of the decadic counter forproducing pulses representative of different end digits of the decadicnumbers, and a plurality of different control means for controlling thestart of the climatization procedure by said control unit connected toindividual ones of said outputs of said decadic counter so that thesequence of operations of said control unit under the control of saidequivalent electrical circuit takes place in an order determined by saidend digits.
 2. A control unit according to claim 1, wherein a logiccircuit is connected to an output of the decadic counter fortransferring pulses to a binary counter.
 3. A control unit according toclaim 2, wherein a further binary counter is connected to the output ofthe said binary counter.
 4. A control unit according to claim 3, whereinsaid binary counters each are arranged to count a number of pulses, saidnumber in each case being a higher power of the number two.
 5. A controlunit according to claim 3 or claim 4, wherein said binary countersreceive stop signals to prevent further counting.
 6. A control unitaccording to claim 5, wherein the first mentioned binary counter isconnected to a monostable switch for generating a said stop signal, saidmonostable switch having an input connected to receive an intermediateone of three decadic end digits.
 7. A control unit according to claim 5,wherein said further binary counters are connected to a logic circuitfor generating a said stop signal, said logic circuit including an inputconnected to receive the largest one of three decadic end digits.
 8. Acontrol unit according to claim 6, wherein the monostable switchtransmits an output signal in synchronism with the intermediate one ofthe three end digits to said logic circuit connected to the output ofthe decadic counter for preventing said logic circuit from transmittingpulses, corresponding to the lowest one of the three end digits, everysecond time and to enable said logic circuit to transmit said pulsesevery other second time, in response to the monostable pulse switchreveiving a pulse, corresponding to the intermediate one of the enddigits.
 9. A control unit according to claim 1, further comprising acontrol circuit responsive to pulses corresponding to the largest one ofthree end digits for controlling reversing of contacts for the change ofcharge in the equivalent electrical circuit at a time when such areversing of contacts is not influenced by other operations controlledin sequence by the intermediate one or the lowest one of three enddigits.
 10. A control unit according to claim 1, wherein the pulsefrequency of the pulse generator is on the order of magnitude of 1megacycle a second.
 11. A control unit according to claim 10, whereinthe pulse generator is crystal controlled.
 12. A control unit accordingto claim 10 or 11, wherein the pulse frequency of the pulse generator isdecreased by division by two to an order of magnitude of about 1kilocycle a second.
 13. A control unit according to claim 1, wherein theoutput pulses from the decadic pulse frequency divider having end digitsin a decadic series of values, possesses end digits which differ fromeach other by two units.
 14. A control unit according to claim 13,wherein the end digits indicating the pulse sequence are uneven numbers.